These encouraging results come from the CMO Survey, a nationwide poll of chief marketing officers (CMOs) conducted twice annually by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the American Marketing Association since 2008.

The most recent CMO Survey queried 3,778 top marketing executives at Fortune 100, Forbes Top 200, and CMO Club companies from Jan. 11-28.

CMOs rated the U.S. economy at 63 on a scale of 0-100, up from a rating of 56 in August 2010. Nearly 69 percent of CMOs reported they were more optimistic about the U.S. economy, compared to 26 percent the previous quarter. In contrast, less optimistic CMOs fell to 6 percent, down from 35 percent the previous quarter.

“Because marketers have the most direct contact with customers and the best perspective of their future plans, these results are especially credible and bode well for economic recovery,” said Christine Moorman, Fuqua professor and director of the survey. “All measures of customer revenue are expected to see gains in the next 12 months.”

CMOs expect higher customer purchase volume, higher prices, more new customers entering the market, and better customer retention. Advertising will see gains in the next year, with spending on traditional ads expected to rise more than 2 percent – the first foray into positive territory since before February 2009.

Spending on social marketing continues its upward trend. CMOs say their firms currently spend 6 percent of their marketing budgets on social media promotions, but that figure will triple to 18 percent over the next five years.

“The growth in social media marketing will be exponential,” Moorman said. “Smaller companies – with revenues under $25 million – in particular will increasingly rely on social media outlets to market their products and services.”

Moorman noted that although firms of all sizes plan to increase spending on marketing via social media, CMOs don’t believe their social media activities are well integrated with their companies’ overall marketing strategies.

In fact, 42 percent rate this integration as below average and only 11 percent of CMOs said their company was “very effective” in integrating social media into their marketing strategies. This suggests an urgency to utilize social media even before a comprehensive plan is developed.

“This approach is natural for such a profoundly innovative tool for interacting with customers,” Moorman said. “Firms are in a period of experimentation and observation about social media. Like television advertising in the ‘50s, this period of learning will define the winners and losers of this generation of firms.”

Completing the rebound portrait, CMOs expect to hire 50 percent more marketing professionals over the next year, with the service consulting industry expected to post the largest gains with 82 percent growth. U.S. CMOs expect most company revenues to come from domestic markets over the next year, while the international market with the highest expected sales increase is China, up 4 percent over February 2010 estimates. Business-to-business companies expect the biggest increases in Chinese markets.

Founded in August 2008, the survey is administered twice each year, with questions repeated over time to discern trends. The next survey will be in August 2011.

This was my “aha” moment of this weekend. Allow me to share this story.

A potential client called last week and asked a simple question: What does NGC Communications do? Without throwing out all those magical buzzwords and fancy public relations jargon to sell the company to the caller, my reply was simple: Storytelling.

Intrigued, the client wanted more – which is always a good thing.

I explained that the word communication is about community. Take a look at both words. Each has the derivative of commune in it, meaning togetherness and sharing. When we communicate we are sharing our stories, and it’s important to be clear and simple when telling those stories. Clarity inspires trust and simplicity gives people certainty.

We also need to remember that any message or story must communicate more than just information but energy – energy that will provide the momentum necessary to motivate your prospective customers. Truly powerful communication always addresses the recipient’s question, “What is in it for me?”

Remember, about 90 percent of communication is not verbal. So, break preoccupation, and focus on listening effectively and using action verbs and energetic words when it is time to tell your story. There are all kinds of communication tools out there to drive a story home. Not the other way around. You can have all the latest and greatest technology and means to deliver it, but without clear and concise content, that important message or story can be lost in an era of information overload.

Take a look at your messaging – both personally and professionally. Are you saying the right thing? Are you using the best method to get your message out there? Do people know who you are and what you do?

If you are struggling to answer any/all of those questions, your clients and colleagues might be, too. Think about it. Send me your comments – would love to hear from you.

This year marks the continuing and determined effort to acquire, retain, and grow customers through search engine channels. And, while some areas are maturing, innovations in the search marketing arena continue at breakneck speed. But, is it worth it?

First of all, what is SEO? Search Engine Optimization is the effective utilization of search engines to draw traffic to your website. Whether you consider it a science, an art – or a combination of both – it is an ongoing, continuously evolving, high-maintenance process that includes customization of your website for better search engine ranking.

It is mostly technical in nature, combining programming with business, persuasion, sales, marketing, and a love for competitive puzzle solving in a written form. However, it is not just technical; it is not copywriting, proper links and source code, or just search engine submission, but an intricate blend of more than 100 variables into the matrix of a website.

It is difficult, indeed, because every search engine is different without a set of proven methodologies or “trade secrets.” It is a lot of trial and error, research, monitoring industry trends (especially your immediate competitors) and time. Some of the key trends that will shape search marketing this year will be the rise of universal search, the growth of international search marketing campaigns as well as innovative developments in the paid search and natural search landscapes.

Many companies still are under-investing in SEO, and there are several reasons for their reluctance. SEO often involves site-side technical changes that clients are unable to implement due to resource constraints. Additionally, SEO is not as predictable or as measurable as other forms of online marketing. Thus, the investment in SEO is taken on with some risk, and results are not always certain.

So, how does SEO return value on investment?

Think of it this way, the top two priorities that every business has for its website are: One, being found on the Web, and two, turning visitors into customers. Without high rankings, how can anyone find you without directly typing in your URL? And, once they are on your site, does your content engage the end user?

So, does SEO affect your business and your bottom line? ABSOLUTELY!

In the early days (mid-90s), SEO was primarily about getting listed in the search engines and the requirements for ranking were simple and easily abused by spammers as a result. Toward the latter part of the decade, it became more important to be found in human-edited directories and search engines put more emphasis on off-page factors to combat spammers and improve relevancy.

It used to be easy to “trick” search engines, but those days are over. Search engines have won the war against keyword spamming through innovative algorithms that can recognize meaning and relevance. Search engines now look for “authority” sites.

As search engines have become more sophisticated, SEO professionals have evolved as well and must master a number of additional skills including data mining, statistics and semantic analysis. Also important to the task of SEO are keyphrase and behavioral research, website and web traffic analytics to measure results, and watching the trends and changes in search engine technologies.

Our research at NGC shows competitive intelligence means less guesswork, significantly less trial and error and quicker results. It is a more scientific approach to SEO.

The near future will be concerned with responding to the challenges and seizing the opportunities presented by the personalization of search and by the increasing popularity of social media. More sophistication will be used in the area of web analytics as well as merchants seeking to leverage all the benefits of behavioral targeting. Further in the future, we see us putting more effort into mobile marketing as consumers both search and buy items using various mobile devices.

As more services and products via numerous forms of media come about, SEO professionals will have to keep up with these new technologies and channels to discover new ways to optimize visibility and traffic for their clients. But, before you dive into your website’s Titles, Keywords, Meta Tags, Frames, Flash, JavaScript, or anything else associated with the backend, remember the single most important factor to building traffic on your website is what everyone else sees.

Every trick in the book is no substitute for robust content. Brilliant content is what everyone wants: you, your customers, and the search engines. Feed those spiders HTML!